SpaceX and Russia: Shuttle Swaps

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Artist’s image of the Boeing Starliner space capsule. (Boeing)

It wasn’t that long ago U.S. astronauts were completely dependent on Russian rockets to get to the International Space Station (ISS). NASA was paying about $60 million per seat on the Soyuz spacecraft. Well, times have certainly changed with SpaceX now ferrying astronauts, Boeing working on its own crewed Starliner capsule, and Northrop Grumman already helping with cargo.

Now NASA is mixing it up. NASA and Russia’s Roscosmos agreed this weak to place astronauts on the Soyuz again and cosmonauts on the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft. Bloomberg reports NASA stated that such mixed crews “ensures there are appropriately trained crew members on board the station for essential maintenance and spacewalks.” In other words, with two launches to the ISS planned in September, a mixing of the crews will ensure some stability in space if only one makes it to the station. Not a bad idea.

Even with all the rhetoric and stunts taking place, it’s nice to see a little bit of common sense prevailing.

Pic of the Week: The Carina Nebula

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): The Carina Nebula as captured by the JWST. (NASA)

This week’s image is an amazing view of the Carina Nebula from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It is one of the first images released by NASA this week. More of the early images are available here.

Here is NASA’s description of what you are seeing in this image:

This landscape of “mountains” and “valleys” speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby, young, star-forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infrared light by NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth.

Called the Cosmic Cliffs, Webb’s seemingly three-dimensional picture looks like craggy mountains on a moonlit evening. In reality, it is the edge of the giant, gaseous cavity within NGC 3324, and the tallest “peaks” in this image are about 7 light-years high. The cavernous area has been carved from the nebula by the intense ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from extremely massive, hot, young stars located in the center of the bubble, above the area shown in this image.

I look forward to posting more such images as they are released.

SpaceX Starship: Booster Issues

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Test run of the Starship Booster on May 5, 2022. (SpaceX)

Earlier this week, SpaceX conducted another test of its Starship. However, the booster was damaged by an explosion during a pre-launch test and will now need to be inspected to determine whether it can be used in the inaugural launch of the Starship later this summer.

For more on the Starship, check out the Cool Worlds video titled “Why Starship Could Transform Astronomy.” It argues that reduced launch costs, reduced complexity, and heavier payloads would allow NASA to launch a fleet of telescopes within current budgets. For instance, the larger Starship payload would have allowed NASA to avoid all of the contortions necessary to fold the James Webb Space Telescope into a smaller rocket. The video also argues that SpaceX’s willingness to take risks is something NASA may want to emulate.

These are interesting times with NASA and SpaceX testing new rockets to place astronauts on distant objects. Even if Russia wants to sit this one out, we have a full blown space race underway domestically.

European/Russian Rover Coordination Now Dead

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Drawing of the ESA’s ExoMars martian rover called the Rosalind Franklin. (ESA)

The European Space Agency (ESA) has decided to terminate cooperation with Russia on the ExoMars rover mission. The joint mission, planned for September 2022, was suspended earlier this year after Russia invaded Ukraine. The ESA has now cut all links on the project and hopes to work with NASA on some aspects of the mission.

The rover, named the Rosalind Franklin, would be the first European rover to visit Mars. It is designed to explore the surface of Mars as well as collect and analyse samples. The plan is to land the rover at a site with high potential for finding well-preserved organic material, particularly from the very early history of the planet.

Both Covid and the war in Ukraine have delayed the rover mission, but the ESA will see it through, alone if necessary, but hopefully with others. Maybe Russia can be a partner again in the future, but it will need new leadership that knows how to play well with others.

JWST: An Early Image of Galaxies

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. (NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI)

Earlier today, President Biden released one of the first images (shown above) from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWSP). A full release is scheduled for tomorrow at this location: https://www.nasa.gov/webbfirstimages.

The image shows galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, which represents thousands of galaxies in a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground.

Here is a little more from NASA on what we are seeing:

The image shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723 as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago. The combined mass of this galaxy cluster acts as a gravitational lens, magnifying much more distant galaxies behind it. Webb’s NIRCam has brought those distant galaxies into sharp focus – they have tiny, faint structures that have never been seen before, including star clusters and diffuse features. Researchers will soon begin to learn more about the galaxies’ masses, ages, histories, and compositions, as Webb seeks the earliest galaxies in the universe.

It’s certainly a good start. Stay tuned for more.